Brit, thanks for that link - the video is excellent. I'd like to learn more about the group that made it - Bird Life International. Migration is a dangerous business for birds these days.

It just occured to me I think the Bird Life International logo is a logo that appears on the site with the Dutch cams some of us watched last year.http://www.beleefdelente.nl/ -- I think it is the same logo -- but none of the cams are up yet so it is not very fun to visit.Alice wrote on 19th Dec. 2009 !!!Bird Life's home site.http://www.birdlife.org/index.htmlWonder if they have a campaign to deal with Malta?

Eva Stets who is living in Greece was so friendly to give me these informations and links about the following actions:

Satellite telemetry of Eleonora’s Falcon, Falco eleonorae

Greece hosts around 85% of global breeding population of the Eleonora’s Falcon, meaning that more than 12,000 pairs breed every year in Greece.

Four Eleonora’s Falcons from Greece (2 adults and 2 juveniles) were equipped with satellite transmitters in their colony on the island of Andros.So, we have a chance for tracking of Eleonora’s Falcons migration from Greece to their wintering areas in SE Africa and Madagascar, in order to investigate the migration routes followed by the birds.

The four birds we called: Voreas, Iris, Notos and Zephyr (nice and pure Greek).

Carsten Rohde, black stork specialist from Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), also one of the authors of a well known book on black storks, told me about the following story.On the following website from the Netherlands on storks you find the article with the photos.

That a black stork is seen in the Netherlands, is in itself unremarkable. The migration time is scheduled for that, especially young black storks are attracted to migrate via the Netherlands. If a ringed black stork is seen, it becomes interesting. Where does he come from and is there more known about the life of the bird?

Ringed in GermanyThe birdmigrationstation in September received a question about a ringed black stork, which was observed on the Soeren's height. There was also a photograph. It did not show clear what was on the ring and therefore the birdmigrationstation asked for our help. On the white ring was T188 readable.Inquiries by us in Belgium led to the German ringing specialist Carsten Rohde. He is working on black storks in Germany. Carsten told us that T188 was ringed on June 22, 2010 in the Spreewald, a forest along the banks of the Spree, southeast of Berlin.At the same litter there was another young one, ringed with T187. Both youngsters also have a small aluminum ring. Carsten illustrated it with a nice photo of two youngsters in the nest.

Migration RoutesAs for Carsten the Dutch report of T 188 is very interesting. The other young, T187, has in fact also been observed. On August, 11 it was seen near Dresden. Do the two youngsters from the same litter use different migration routes? An interesting question for our German colleague.

Soeren's heightThe photo of T188 brought us into contact with the reporter and photographer, Prof. Mr Pieter van Vollenhoven. He had seen and photographed the black stork on August 19, 2010, and realized that this one was rather special. Mr Van Vollenhoven told us that he photographed through the car window not to startle the stork. The bird turned out to be so shy, though he kept a close eye on the photographer. When the stork not immediately flew up, Mr Van Vollenhoven also took some pictures from outside the car. One is shown below. With a few strong wing beats T188 choose the airspace. Mr Van Vollenhoven wrote the following explanation for his pictures:

Right Honourable Mr. van Nee.

Here are the two pictures of my black stork.Indeed, taken with a 500 mm.Here I was outside the car.I am always around with my 500 mm lens and with my 180 mm macro lens.I've never seen a black stork at Het Loo in my life. Given its resting position the bird was very tired.The picture was taken at Soeren's heigt neat Echoput Hotel and near the Aardhuis.Both are at the provincial road between Apeldoorn and Nieuw Millingen.

CopyrightsThe report and photo of T188 resulted on a very pleasant personal contact with Mr Van Vollenhoven. We are glad to be able to publish the photos and notes ton the website of STORK. We would like to point out that the copyrights on the pictures belong to Mr van Vollenhoven and that without his permission no one is allowed acquiring and publishing them.On the photo from Carsten Rohde there is a copyright too.

I should have added to the above article that the mentioned photographer Prof. Pieter van Vollenhoeven is the husband of Princess Margriet and therefore the brother in law of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. May be this is why the article has the titel "Black with an orange edge", because on the one hand Queen Beatrix and her sister Margriet belong to the house of Oranje-Nassau and on the other hand the black stork has red-orange beak and legs.

I have watched about half of the videos. And I have checked online about buying it. Winged Migration is available locally for not very much money or for even less if I wanted to buy it from Ebay -- I think it is something I want to own.

Further to a post (above) by macdoum, quoting bociany and Alice, here is more news about the slaughterhouse that is Malta.This has just come to me by e-mail from Brit. Warning - the links lead to some distressing images, so choose carefully.

May and such a number of storks crossing the sea …!? So I contacted CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) and asked if they know anything about. Yes, the story is true. So what could be done for protest?

Well CABS advices to write e-mails to the Prime Minister: Lawrence Gonzi (https://opm.gov.mt/). Ask him to:

forbid hunting in spring time,

built up environment police force, build up of a ‘special wildlife-crime-unit’ which not only works during migration,

give higher penalities for poachers, special for the ‘repeated offenders’

Thank you, Jo, for your help! I asked BirdLife Malta what else could be done to help and got the following answer:

With regards to what internationals can do to help there are several things.

Apart from raising awareness (very important – blogs, internet forums, emails, presentations to wildlife groups, discussions over glasses of wine/beer/BBQs with friends), people can also consider joining us for our international Spring Watch and Raptor Camps.

Spring Watch is held every April, and Raptor Camp every September. These are normally two week events where international volunteers join the locals in monitoring bird migration and acting as deterrents to illegal hunting by maintaining a strong presence in the countryside. This means long hours in the countryside bird watching, and taking footage of illegalities, passing reports onto the police. When large roosts or particularly vulnerable roost develop, teams also spend the night in their vicinity to deter night shooting. Our experience shows that when we send a team somewhere, all illegalities shut down completely while they are there, however just outside this area of control illegalities continue as normal. Therefore the more international volunteers we have during these key periods, the more ground we can cover and the more birds we can save.

People can also send emails to their MEPs, Malta’s government, and the European Commission. We suggest people write condemning the illegalities, stressing that this situation has been ongoing for a number of years and the Maltese government has not yet stopped it, finally urging the Commission to take action and force Malta to stop the illegal killing

People can naturally join BLM as members, or donate to us. We keep ourselves very busy campaigning strongly against the illegalities and the more support we have, the more we can do.

And besides in addition to write to the Prime Minister also emails to the EU commissioner could be helpfull:

Mr Janez Potocnik’s email address (Commissioner for the Environment of the European Commission). It would be great if people concerned about the killing could write to him, urging the European Commission to take action to stop these illegalities, which occur every time rare birds come to Malta.

i don't dare to have a look on any of those pictures... besides that i've known that Malta is a black hole for birds there's another black spot in the bird world that is much closer to me and of which i'm ashamed of, even within the borders of my country: the Åland islands. there people still are allowed to hunt water fowl in the springs and it seems that there's no way to make them stop doing it..

i understand that in the old times this spring hunting and collecting eggs of these birds was very inportant as a livelihood in the spring when all other food was scarse, but now in the "fat" days surely no-one is dependent on this anymore. i think that nowadays it's only another excuse for drinking schnaps in the wild. that could be done on dry land without killing breeding birds in the spring which is quite irrational. the sensible thing is to wait for them to multiply in peace and then hunt them in the late summer and autumn...

I was asked for a sample letter concerning the bird slaughter in Malta. According to BirdLife Malta it would be important to write to the Prime Minister Gonzi, customercare.opm@gov.mt

Dear Prime Minister Gonzi,

On the 19th of May 2011 210 White Storks landed on the islands of Malta. BirdLife informed immediately the police, but the hunters were quicker and several White Storks where shot or badly hurt. And only 87 White Stork were seen leaving Malta again ….

Unfortunately Maltese people are worldwide famous for their passion for Bird hunting. Of course, not all people of Malta are hunters, but the worldwide reputation doesn’t really make a difference. It’s Malta which has the bad reputation. Malta, a member of the EU, and nothing can be done against these few (??) poachers who ruin the reputation of Malta? I cannot believe it! The politicians are strongly asked now to introduce legislation which controls this barbaric slaughter of birds.

We ask you to:

- Please stop the hunt, mainly during migration times during spring and autuum- Reinforcement of environment police, founding of a special “wildlife-crime-unit” which is working also during off migration season- Higher minimum sanctions for convicted poachers, and more vigorous control of “repeat offenders”- A hunting ban at the known resting and sleeping places of the birds, for example the piece of woodland “Mizieb”

There must be an end of the Bird slaughter on Malta!

Please help our feathered friends and many people around the world will be thankful to you!

On the 19th of May 2011 210 White Storks landed on the islands of Malta. BirdLife informed immediately the police, but over the next few days White Storks where shot or badly hurt in different parts of the islands. And only 87 White Stork were seen leaving Malta again ….

Unfortunately Maltese people are worldwide famous for their passion for Bird hunting – not always of the legal kind. Of course, not all people of Malta are hunters, but the worldwide reputation doesn’t really make a difference. It’s Malta which has the bad reputation. Malta, a member of the EU, and nothing can be done against these few (??) poachers who ruin the reputation of Malta? I cannot believe it! The politicians are strongly asked now to increase enforcement to control this barbaric slaughter of birds.

Please consider the following facts in this concern:

- Besides of Stork hunting on Malta, I wish to point out, that a large flock of Marsh Harrier was shot in its sleeping area in April this year and also a flock of Spoonbills which disappeared early in February after hunting events. Incidents from this year!- I is the EC’s responsibility to ensure that member states respect, implement and enforce EU legislation – the EC must take action against Malta over the illegalities- It’s fact, that spring hunting is not permitted under EU legislation. Malta is member of the EU and has to follow strictly to its legislations, but that the EU’s worst member state when it comes to illegal bird hunting is still permitting spring hunting.- Besides Stork hunting it is yet popular on Malta to hunt Turtle Cove and Quail, species with declining population in Europe. Why did the commission not stop this officially forbidden practise?- The EU has an obligation to reinforce their regulations and to observe that no member country will disregard given rules.

Please insist that also Malta has to follow.

There must be an end to Malta’s illegal bird slaughter!

Please help our feathered friends and many people around the world will be thankful to you!

Yours sincerely('signature')

Please do write letters to these two gentlemen, it's the only hope to help stop the Bird slaughter in Malta!!!

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